The environment has become a global issue affecting each and every one
of us.Nearly every day, information about some short- or long-term
threat to the environment is presented in the mass media. Concern for
the environment, and how best to ward off the impending disasters of
which the scientific community warns us, has become an integral part of
public debate among academic specialists and the policymaking community. The growing public concern with the greenhouse effect and the
deforestation of the Amazon, two of the most publicized environmental
issues, has forced academics and policymakers to focus greater attention
and resources on the environment.Advanced scientific research, policy
studies, and numerous conferences and seminars designed to promote
environmental awareness have been conducted around the world. These
issues are indeed global, crossing national and international boundaries
with no respect for strategic alliances or political ideology. The environment affects us all, and thus a cross-disciplinary and cross-regional
approach is essential if we are to achieve the degree of understanding
necessary to formulate effective environmental public policies.

In Latin America, fear is widespread that efforts to protect the
environment somehow will impede or frustrate plans for economic
development.For many years, environmental concerns were the
monopoly of small, single-issue, often economically privileged groups in
the industrialized nations—the "Greens" in Europe, for example, and
wildlife groups in the United States.Third World nations considered
such concerns a luxury.Indeed, in international forums, representatives
of developing nations in Latin America often referred to concern for the
environment as yet another means by which the industrialized North
would keep the underdeveloped South in thrall.

Recently, this situation has begun to change. Latin Americans have
begun to address environmental issues previously ignored or considered

____________________

Joseph S. Tulchin is director of the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson
Center; Andrew I. Rudman, previously program associate of the Woodrow Wilson Center
Latin American Program, is now with the US Foreign Service posted to Guayaquil, Equador.

Print this page

While we understand printed pages are helpful to our users, this limitation is necessary
to help protect our publishers' copyrighted material and prevent its unlawful distribution.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.